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'Mr. Samba' Talks About Samba's Future 111

Posted by ScuttleMonkey from the from-the-horses-mouth dept.
Jan Stafford writes "SearchEnterpriseLinux is running an article that gives the inside scoop from Samba guru John H. Terpstra on upcoming new features in Samba-3 and Samba-4, recent events in FUD-fighting and the benefits that businesses can realize by adopting open source early."
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'Mr. Samba' Talks About Samba's Future More

'Mr. Samba' Talks About Samba's Future

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  • Mr Samba? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 19, 2005 @05:30PM (#13599551)
    Surely if anyone deserves this title it's Andrew Tridgell. [samba.org]

  • Wow (Score:5, Insightful)

    by lilmouse ( 310335 ) on Monday September 19, 2005 @05:32PM (#13599564)
    No disrespect or nothin', but did he write his own questions, too?

    This wasn't an interview, this was a press release!

    Oh well, such is the way of the world, I guess...

    --LWM
    • There was nothing about dancing! Geeze!
      • There was nothing about dancing! Geeze!

        From TFA:

        It just quietly goes about its business while the rest of the world delights in arguing about how many angels can dance on the head of a pin.
    • It was a press release. This is one case where I can't blame people for not RTFA. Embarrassingly, I did and couldn't help laughing at his plea for the children.

      > It is a first step to securing a better future for our children, who will comprise the next generation of IT managers.
    • Either his answers were highly edited, or he is a human product brochure.
      • Have you ever seen John Terpstra speak? He really is that good, live.

        • Re:Wow (Score:4, Funny)

          by Jozer99 ( 693146 ) on Monday September 19, 2005 @07:58PM (#13600523)
          I bet he is. I can see it now, after the speech is over, in his dressing room:

          "You know, speakers all over the world, including me, appreciate a chilled coca cola after an appearance. Coca Cola, an international brand and hallmark of the consumer products industry, features a beverage that could be seen as a standard to which all other beverages are measured.
          Also, all markets, from home users to giant corporations, appreciate taking a nice relaxing dump after a good long day. Dumps have features that all of us can use..."
          • You know, there usualy is a great feeling of relief and accomplishment after a long hard dump. I think your on to somethign there. Sometime it can help to do it in the moring to help get the day started too.

    • The best make it look easy. (Score:5, Insightful)

      by twitter ( 104583 ) on Monday September 19, 2005 @06:30PM (#13599919) Homepage Journal
      .... did he write his own questions, too? This wasn't an interview, this was a press release!

      That's how it looks when someone knows how to answer questions. If you go back and look at those questions again you will see some real barbs. Allow me to point out some of the more dangerous ones:

      For businesses, what is adopting Linux the first step toward?

      This question came 2/3rds down the article when Linux was mentioned for the first time outside of the site name. The reporter is asking him to justify his product's and free software's existence. That a big question you can lose in daily details. His answer, "Linux is a first step toward organizational independence from single-vendor IT sources," is just what people want to hear.

      Could you name a couple of other Samba-3 features that have a niche and are only used in those niches?

      This is a follow up to another question that together are tricky. The first question asked him, "What are the primary capabilities of Samba-3 ..." John avoided the trap by not answering the first question litterally with one or two things and then rejecting the notion Samba is a "niche" product useful only to a few dozen small shops.

      Those kinds of questions are classic. His answers are simply up to task. If you don't appreciate it, just let someone like Jan [techtarget.com] grill you one day. From a distance, behind good cover like John, the words look like honey. When they are in your face and you are trying to get other things done, they can look very hard. She's has been around longer than Linux and knows how to get a story. Bad answers to any of these questions would look bad but good answers are equally good.

      • After your lengthy explanation I had to go and read the article again...

        Unfortunately, it's still a press release, no matter how you present it...

      • For businesses, what is adopting Linux the first step toward?

        This one is the question I felt was most press-releasy - it's not a barbed question at all. Another way to ask it is:

        Give us some propaganda on why Linux is so great, ok?

        Could you name a couple of other Samba-3 features that have a niche and are only used in those niches?

        I actually liked this question - it seemed like one of the few real ones. It was a followup to his mentioning the specific things going into Samba 4 for the Sarbanes Oxley discl

    • Funny, I dont see how his replies really corresponded to the questions. Who needs good questions when you can answer another question altogether.

      > What are the primary capabilities of Samba-3 that
      > every admin should learn to exploit to the
      > fullest?

      >Terpstra: Samba-3.0.0 supported unicode
      >characters, secure channel communication and
      >digital sign-n-seal support. It included a new
      >password back-end capability, as well as new
      >group handling.

      Erm, right. I'll go update my password back

  • Samba (Score:5, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 19, 2005 @05:32PM (#13599565)
    Arrr. Samba-3 development an' support will continue until at least 2008. O'er that time 't will be gi'en th' ability t' integrate more seamlessly wi' Windows Active Directory an' its clients. Remote captainship features will be further expanded, an' a new remote procedure call infrastructure will replace th' current one, which will be keelhauled. Arrr. Additional facilities bein' added will assist sites that be havin' specific Sarbanes-Oxley requirements. Th' myriad o' new technologies in Samba-4 will be aft-ported t' Samba-3, thus narrowin' th' gap between th' two versions. Samba-4 will ship within th' next voyage an' will live alongside Samba-3 fer a long time. Both versions will strive t' reduce resource requirements an' improve efficiency. Documentation improvements will also continue t' be made, wi' greater focus on support o' deployment an' wi' a lesser focus on th' nuts an' bolts in its internals.

  • Not much about Samba 4... (Score:5, Informative)

    by Boffy ( 881935 ) <paul.bowsher@gFO ... m minus language> on Monday September 19, 2005 @05:39PM (#13599606)
    ...just about Samba 3. Samba 4 info can be found here [samba.org]

  • Samba the Great! (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Piranhaa ( 672441 ) on Monday September 19, 2005 @05:53PM (#13599659)
    I believe Samba to be one of the great server-side pieces of software in Open Source for companies to slowly switch. This past week, I actually just switched my company's fileserver, and another computer doing domain logon into a single computer doing it all. Easy administration, small footprint (in comparison to windows) and shows restarts are rarely required ;) Next is to switch their desktops too! hehe
  • "Linux and open source software...is a first step to securing a better future for our children...."

    I am a big fan of Samba, but even I think that's a pretty lofty statement.
    • How would you have responded to that question?

      For businesses, what is adopting Linux the first step toward?

      I agree it sounds corny. I don't really see much wrong with it if it could be worded a little differently. Maybe something like this would be better?

      Linux and open source software is a choice for greater business ethics. It is a first step toward redefinition of the IT services market. It is a first step to securing a better future for the next generation of IT managers.

      It doesn't sound as comp

  • That interview was an aweful lot like a press release. Is this guy making money on Samba somehow?

    -matthew

  • reality: it's hard (Score:3, Interesting)

    by bcrowell ( 177657 ) on Monday September 19, 2005 @06:46PM (#13600030) Homepage
    I think the reality is that stuff like Samba is extremely hard to do. I work at a community college, and I brought in my own linux box to have on my desk. I set up Samba for printing, and most of the time it worked, but once in a while it would stop the whole queue, which would piss off all my co-workers. So I gave up on Samba.

    Some of my co-workers who have macs have mentioned similar problems. (They phrase it as "printing from macs doesn't work," but I assume MacOS X also uses Samba for this, and they're experiencing the same problem I was.)

    It's just extremely hard to chase a moving target.

    • It's certainly easier to setup a printer server in Windows rather than Samba but the former is weak as a print server.

      I recently completed a training course in administering a Windows 2003 server and was shocked at the lack of granular control for printers. Things you can do easily in Unix such as print quotas just aren't possible in Windows.

      So in short Windows is easy to setup but if you want granular control you're much better off with Samba.
    • I set up a University print server with lpd, netatalk, and samba 5 years ago and had no significant problems. I'm currently running a cups and samba print server in a company and have no problems at all.

      Maybe Samba isn't your problem. As they say, a bad tradesman blames his tools.
      • The GP doesn't mention this outright but presumably he got it working with Windows after ditching Samba.
        I would wager most people would rather be dumbasses with a working printer than a smartass with a broken one.
      • No, the problem probably is Samba. More specifically, I bet they have a Windows server. Samba is great on a single server or multiple servers. But it's not so great acting as a client to Windows servers, and/or operating as a server with other Windows severs. SMB is a terrible mess after all these years of MS piling stuff on with little regard for future compatablity. And various concepts in Windows don't always map 1:1 with equivalent concepts in Unix/Linux (and vice versa).
        • But it's not so great acting as a client to Windows servers, and/or operating as a server with other Windows severs.

          Bullshit.

          I've been using Samba in exactly this way for almost 9 years - it works flawlessly, and was trivial to set up.

    • Re:reality: it's hard (Score:1, Informative)

      by Anonymous Coward
      I am by know means a Linux guru but I have installed and maintained roughly 15-20 Samba servers in the last 10 years for small and medium offices. There really is nothing to it once you have the basics of the smb.conf down and what each parameter does. Start with a basic public access share and work your way up from there. I did an installation with RH6.x back in 1999 that is still in use today even though no one has touched the server since I left over 4 years ago. I provided instructions on how to bac
  • Everybody was F U D Fighting!
    Those hacks were fast as lightning!

    • Obligatory Carl Douglas (long one) (Score:5, Funny)

      by Dark Coder ( 66759 ) on Monday September 19, 2005 @10:55PM (#13601374)
      Everybody was Kung-FUD fighting
      Those hacks were fast as lightning
      In fact it was a little bit frightning
      But they crack 'en expert typing.

      They were funky Hacking dudes from funky IRC
      They were hacking them up and they were hacking them down
      It's an ancient Cracker art and everybody knew their part
      From a p0f into nmap, and cracking with l0pht.

      Everybody was Kung-FUD fighting
      Those hacks were fast as lightning
      In fact it was a little bit frightning
      But they hack with typing a blazin'.

      There was funky K'vin Mitnick and little Jon Johansen.
      He said here comes the big mafia, lets get it on
      We ping their host and made a stand, started DoS'ing with deft of a hand
      The sudden BSOD made me lurch, now we're into a brand new stepping stones.

      Everybody was kung-FUD fighting
      Those hacks were fast as lightning
      In fact it was a little bit frightning
      But they flip it with incredible l33t typin'.

      (repeat)..make sure you have expert typing
      Kung-FUD fighting, had to be fast as lightning

  • John Terpstra to Speak at SCALE 4x (Score:1, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward
    John will be speaking [socallinuxexpo.org] at SCALE 4x [socallinuxexpo.org] this year. SCALE 4x, the 2006 southern California Linux Expo [socallinuxexpo.org] will be held on Feb 11-12, 2006. It is a grass roots / community run linux and open-source conference based in Los Angeles. Their Call For Papers [socallinuxexpo.org] is still open.
  • I thought Samba like windows had no future.

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